A Sort of Goodbye

This will be the third to last issue of Pool & Spa News where I am the editor. Even typing that sentence makes me sad, but I’m also ready to move forward into this new chapter of my life.

Well, sort of a new chapter.

Currently, I live in Los Angeles, my hometown for 30 years, but when a company in Dallas offered my significant other a great opportunity, we decided that he would take the job. He left in May, and I will follow him there in late July. At first I thought about retaining my position as editor from a remote location, but after discussing it with upper management at Hanley Wood — the company that owns this magazine — we decided that my overseeing a staff from more than 1,000 miles away was not a good idea.

However, I didn’t want to leave the company. Luckily for me, they felt the same way.

Beginning in August, I will be the official (and only) full-time writer and the editor of Aquatics International, a sister publication to Pool & Spa News. And I will be a Texan.

Though I’ve been overseeing AI for a number of months, I’m really looking forward to digging in deeper to bring to it the same level of time and attention I’ve given Pool & Spa News for 12 years.

While there will be a new editor running the show here, I will still be very much a part of the publication. An important aspect of my job going forward will be using social media to build engagement with Pool & Spa News online. So I will be blogging and posting extensively on the PSN website, poolspanews.com. As a matter of fact, in preparation for my new role, I’ve been honing my skills on Twitter and am starting to get the hang of expressing a complex thought in very, very, (very) little space. To that end, if you’re a tweeter, please follow me at @ErikaMTaylor, and I’ll return the favor.

And if you know Dallas, please drop me a note with any advice that you think might benefit a newcomer.